Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing. It is performed on unresponsive individuals with no breathing or abnormal breathing.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedure requires tilting a victim's head back to open the trachea to improve airflow to the lungs,
It is very important for a CPR provider to have access to a device that maintains proper positioning of a victim during CPR and frees an emergency respondent's hands to be used in performing CPR. Ideally, such a device would accommodate a broad spectrum of people from small children to large adults.
In most emergency responses the victim's head is rested on the nearest flat surface. Currently, to accomplish the proper positioning the person attending must use his hands to properly position and hold the victim's head firmly tilting the head and lifting the chin opening the trachea to improve airflow to the lungs. Other methods commonly utilized include placing a towel under the victim's neck. However, these techniques are unreliable and may result in the failure to maintain the proper positioning of the head and neck.
What is needed is a device that will enable safe, quick, and accurate alignment of the head and neck to facilitate proper CPR. Emergency responders need a device that is lightweight and can be carried along effortlessly with other equipment.
Others have put forth designs to aid in the positioning of individuals heads and necks to facilitate breathing in emergency situations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,288 to Pi and U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,774 to Popitz both describes a pillow for use for opening a person's airway primarily for intubation. Another example includes U.S Pat. Publ. 20090145442 to Hecox et al. that describes a medical support pillow that includes hardware and software housed within and configured to provide CPR instruction to the CPR provider. The first two-referenced support pillows were not designed specifically for providing CPR, but rather intubation and positions the patient in what is medically known as the sniffing position.